tailieunhanh - Heitor Villa-Lobos and the Parisian art scene: how to become a Brazilian musician*

This article discusses how the flux of cultural productions between centre and periphery works, taking as an example the field of music production in France and Brazil in the 1920s. The life trajectories of Jean Cocteau, French poet and painter, and Heitor Villa-Lobos, a Brazilian composer, are taken as the main reference points for the discussion. The article concludes that social actors from the periphery tend themselves to accept the opinions and judgements of the social actors from the centre, taking for granted their definitions concerning the criteria that validate their productions | 1 Mana Rio de Janeiro Oct. 2006 Heitor Villa-Lobos and the Parisian art scene how to become a Brazilian musician Paulo Renato Guérios Master s in Social Anthropology at PPGAS Museu Nacional UFRJ currently a doctoral student at the same institution ABSTRACT This article discusses how the flux of cultural productions between centre and periphery works taking as an example the field of music production in France and Brazil in the 1920s. The life trajectories of Jean Cocteau French poet and painter and Heitor Villa-Lobos a Brazilian composer are taken as the main reference points for the discussion. The article concludes that social actors from the periphery tend themselves to accept the opinions and judgements of the social actors from the centre taking for granted their definitions concerning the criteria that validate their productions. Key words Heitor Villa-Lobos Brazilian Music National Culture Cultural Flows In July 1923 the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos arrived in Paris as a complete unknown. Some five years had passed since his first large-scale concert in Brazil Villa-Lobos journeyed to Europe with the intention of publicizing his musical output. His entry into the Parisian art world took place through the group of Brazilian modernist painters and writers he had encountered in 1922 immediately before the Modern Art Week in São Paulo. Following his arrival the composer was invited to a lunch in the studio of the painter Tarsila do Amaral where he met up with among others the poet Sérgio Milliet the pianist João de Souza Lima the writer Oswald de Andrade and among the Parisians the poet Blaise Cendrars the musician Erik Satie and the poet and painter Jean Cocteau. After the lunch the artists became engrossed in a lively conversation which drifted into a discussion on the art of musical improvisation. Villa-Lobos who had already composed an extensive repertoire of piano solos then sat down to Tarsila s Erard concerto to improvise. Immediately